Posted: May 23rd, 2015

Research article critique

Psy 626
Assignment Three – Research Article Critique
The purpose of this task is for you to use skills you have acquired over the course of the term to review and evaluate the strength of peer reviewed article. The article will be an article of your choice (you may use the article form your real-world research presentation if you’d like). Your critique should be around five pages long (but I’m flexible and am more concerned with your ability to demonstrate that you can incorporate the ideas we’ve discussed into a critique of a scientific article.) (30 points)
Points to be covered in the critique:
• Introduction & Lit Review
What question is the study trying to answer? What is the significance of the problem and the research? What are the hypotheses/questions and are they clearly presented? How well does the review demonstrate the importance of this study? Does the review provide you with enough background to understand the problem being investigated? Are the citations used adequate?
• Methods: Subjects and Sampling: What is the population being studied? What sampling technique was used? What are the specific characteristics of the sample presented? To whom can the results be generalized? In what ways might results or conclusions be biased due to the sample?
• Design: Describe the design of the study. How does the design of the study impact the interpretation of the findings? Discuss ethical considerations.
• Internal Validity: Random assignment? Control groups? What are some rival hypotheses that might have affected the results?
• Procedures: How were data collected? Could you replicate the study if given the procedures as described?
• Instruments: What are the variables under investigation? How are the variables operationally defined/ measured? Are they appropriate for the sample being studied? If reliability and validity data are provided report them
• Results: What were the findings? What statistical tests (if any) were used? How well did the author explain statistical tests used and the rationale for their use? Might the sample size have effect the result (i.e.: too small to detect a result or too large for result to have practical significance)? How well are the findings tied to the hypotheses and/or research questions?
• Discussion: Discuss the conclusions drawn by the authors (do you agree, are they valid?) How do the findings support or contradict prior research?
• Is each finding discussed in relation to the original hypotheses being tested? Are the results consistent or inconsistent with previous research? Do the authors discuss this? Do the authors generalize their results beyond the sample? Are the generalizations appropriate? What are the implications of the results?